Mppt 100 50 load output

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1

Hi

I’ve got an old mppt solar charger that is connected to my solar. Batteries and load terminal is wired to some lights in a shed.

I’ve just purchased the victron Mppt 100/50 to replace my old charger but have realised it doesn’t come with a load/output terminal! I’ve now noticed that the smaller victron charge controllers have the load terminal but before I send back the 100/50 Mppt is there anything I can do to use it to power my shed lights directly?

Thanks

2

Yes, you can still use this to power your shed lights, without any pv input, depending on the load switch mode you use. It will quite happily still work in voltage sensing mode, but not in streetlight mode.

3

Thanks for your reply.

I don’t fully understand what you mean - there is a Pv and battery port on the charger. Which port do I use for the lights?

Any idea why the 100/50 doesn’t have a load port yet the smaller sized ones do?

Thanks

4

Sorry, I misread, you can still use the OLD controller to power the lights.The larger controllers don’t have a specific load port as that is very rarely used. Some models have a relay that can be used up to it’s current rating. Otherwise, why can’t you connect your lights directly to the battery?

5

The plan was to replace the old charge controller with the victron. How can the old charger work along with the new victron?

The batteries are power safe agm 172a x2 connected in parallel - if I connect the lighting cables direct to the batteries won’t this be a bit risky?

6

Firstly by “connected directly to the battery”, this assumes that a fuse and manual switch would be included. This would be normal practice - Even if another voltage or remotely controlled switch is included.
If you use the old charge controller without any PV input, then it will still act as a voltage controlled switch for the load output. The controller just thinks it’s in the middle of the night all the time, so just controls the load on the battery voltage.
I’d assume that the old charge controller is a PWM type?
If you are replacing this with the Victron MPPT type, then you will probably need to re-wire your array in series rather than parallel. MPPT’s like a higher input voltage, They need at least 5V over the battery voltage to start charging. The MPPT would be wired to the battery via a fuse, and the PV input should also have a fuse/manual switch to disconnect the PV from the MPPT.